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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Afterwards

My friend Satya Robin published a new book today.

I've no doubt it will be a good read, but it's interesting to me in other ways.

I first met Satya, or Fiona as I knew her then (she's since become a Buddhist monk), more than ten years ago, on a course for business facilitators. We were placed in the same 'support and challenge' group, and being a trained counsellor she was good at that sort of stuff - by far the best on the programme. And I especially remember us sharing doubts about the the direction our carers were heading - neither of us sure which way to go.

As it happened, I stuck with the corporate world; Satya became a full-time writer and a counsellor. Despite our different paths, we've remained in touch ever since - and both choices were right I think.

Satya could easily find a traditional publisher and indeed used to have one - but in recent years she's chosen to self publish, using Kindle and a network of contacts and social media to promote sales. I'm in awe of her constant initiative and regard her as one of the best and most innovative networkers I know.

It strikes me that this approach to self-publishing is a good for all writers, new and old. In today's challenged times, even well-established authors find it hard to attract mainstream support. One option is crowd-funding through agencies such as Unbound - see here for Rory Maclean's project on Transnistria. But while traditional print still has its place, there's also one for well produced, well promoted - and well written - ebooks, that can be made available without the need to jumping quite such high hurdles.

There's a lot of bloggers and would be writers who could learn from Satya. Meanwhile, if you'd like to read the reviews and buy her book, click here.

2 comments:

Satya sounds like a very interesting lady, I shall read the review of her book. One of my great friends is a published author of several books, but struggling to get her most recent (in the same style) book published. She is considering self publishing, but I suspect her busy life as a successful sculptor will prevent her from being able to promote her book fully.

What a coincidence, I've been contacted by Incredible Edible Todmorden today, who are currently crowdfunding a book telling the story of the project. I'll also be meeting someone goingdown the Unbound route tomorrow.